Smoke, not burns, killed people: Doctors
MUMBAI: None of the victims of the Kamala Mills fire had injuries that were severe enough to kill them, said Dr Harish Pathak, head of forensic department at KEM Hospital, adding they died because of inhaling smoke.
“Fire spreads upwards and in this case, the roof of the restaurant was made of tarpaulin, bamboos and other plastic material which, after burning, creates carbon monoxide, which is deadly for humans,” said Dr Pathak.
The team of experts, who conducted post-mortems overnight at the hospital, said the cause of death—asphyxia (suffocation) due to carbon monoxide poisoning was common in all of them. However, the blood samples of the victims were preserved and sent for chemical analysis for fur- ther evaluation.
Forensic experts said the red colour of the blood was a clear indication of synthetic poisoning of the victims. “Carbon monoxide, combined with haemoglobin, restricts the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood, giving it a dark red colour,” Dr Pathak said.
“Prima facie, we were not able to ascertain the level of alcohol in the victims’ blood, so we will have wait for reports from the Kalina Forensic Laboratory to see if ine- briation could also be one of the causes, which deterred them from escaping the building,” Dr Pathak said.
Siddharth Shroff, 41, a survivor of the incident, said alcohol could have been a problem as by 12.30am, many of the 150-200 people present in 1Above restaurant were inebriated. Survivors claimed the restaurants became death traps owing to untrained staff, absence of prominently marked exit signs and lack of ventilation. “People were screaming panicking and started looking for an exit, which couldn’t be spotted easily. Eventually, it became a stampede-like situation where all of us, were using our might to escape through a narrow exit door,” Shroff said.
Other eyewitnesses said the restaurant staff too wasn’t efficiently trained to handle such situations—which could be one of the reasons of heavy casualties in women. Eleven of the fourteen victims were women, who were trapped in women’s washrooms.
“On failing to find a door, all of us started to rush into washrooms to be safe and maintain safe distance from flames. The staff standing out kept shouting instructions that we should stay inside instead of exposing ourselves to fire because the tarpaulin and bamboo shade of the restaurant was collapsing,” said an eyewitness.
However, it was a disk jockey, who had an argument with staff members, and started looking for an alternate exit. While the men, hiding in washrooms, followed the DJ and found an escape through the kitchen door, the women remained inside the washrooms and became victims of the enclosed rooms filled with poisonous gas.